Les Belle Lettres: Summer Fun! June Part I

What a fun June! We packed lots of exciting times into June with friends and family. Just take a peek.

The Ballet
My friend Jenna and I had been talking about going to the ballet since December when we missed the Nutcracker. She called me excitedly about Ballet Across America starting at the Kennedy Center the first week of June so off we went. Jenna is a dancer and ummm... I use to be.

And you have been wondering where John Travolta got his dance moves, I think I was 3rd grade here. I was a dancing girl. Check out the bows on the shoes and the hat. Wonderful! John you can thank me any time!

I think I was in the seventh grade maybe 13 here judging from the hair style. I wanted to include this in my journal because I loved those tap shoes. They were double tappers and I saved them until well after Andrew was born. Something happened to my feet during that pregnancy. I went from size 6 to size 8 shoe. I thought my feet would go back and they did shrink to a 7 so I gave up the shoes that were too small. I'm sad I gave them away.

I took dancing lessons from the 2nd grade until I graduated from high school and then taught dance after I graduated. My brothers lovingly called it "Andrea's Tippy Toe Classes". My dad put a bar in my room for his dancing daughter. I had a blast teaching those little girls. Anyway, I digress. And you know that Rich and Jenna's husband, Brian were so happy they didn't have to go to the ballet with us. Jenna and I had a great time.

Jenna and I all smiles with the prospect of the ballet.

We enjoyed the Boston Ballet, Richmond Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet. We were on the first row, first balcony. We noticed some of the box seats were empty below us so we enjoyed the remainder of the show from the box seats. Ha Ha. Great box seats.

We then stopped at Artie's, my favorite place in America to eat -- for a late night dinner. What a great evening. We were very pleased with ourselves. I haven't been to the ballet since I saw Baryshnikov in the 80s. Great company and great evening!

Cousins sleepover!
Onto to cousins sleepover at Grammy and Grandpa's house. We picked up Audrey and Jocelyn in Bristow and Charlotte came to play and ended up sleeping over too. These little girls love each other so much and don't get lot play time together.

Nathan left and the girls started their fun................

They made cookies and played kitchen. They colored pictures for each other and pretty much wore themselves out.
They all wanted to sleep together in the trundle bed. Here is Jocelyn sound asleep.

I didn't think it would work to let Charlotte and Audrey sleep together, but they promised not to get out of bed and they were asleep in no time at all. They are just adorable together. Grandpa told them stories until they fell asleep.

The next morning they came in at 6:00 am hungry. We told them they couldn't eat until it was time to get up at 7:00. I had promised them waffles. So they all snuggled with Grammy and Grandpa for a while. We then found out they had been downstairs playing the Wii. They got up and it was still dark so Charlotte and Audrey went down to play. Who knows what time that was. At about 2:00 in the afternoon we found Audrey asleep on the couch with Grammy's iPad on her lap.
California Fun
Three days after the sleep over we were headed for California. We have started flying out of Charlottesville instead of Dulles because it is so much easier. NO LINES! Gabe took us to the airport (thanks Gabe) and we arrived in Fresno to four very excited kids. We were there two weeks and the weather was great. We opened the windows at night and walked every morning in cool temperatures. The day we left it went into triple digits.
Shelly and Carsen had cub scout camp for three days so Grandpa and I held down the rest of the gang at home. In spite of her busy schedule, Shelly gets up at 6:00 am every morning to run. She is amazing.

I really love Fresno -- it is Central Valley with the mountains to the East (Yosemite) and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is hot and dry but I love the trees and lush fields of broccoli, lettuce, grapes and so much more -- the olive trees, fig trees, palm trees, sequoias -- all beautiful.
Here are some examples:
Here is a olive tree in the Fresno Airport.

These sequoias get huge!

This picture is not mine, but gives you a better idea.

These sequoias look like soldiers guarding the city. They are everywhere in Fresno. They never have to be pruned.

This is an agriculture valley. This is broccoli or something. We were on the way to Monterey and were just crossing into the mountains.

On the way back from Monterey we drove through the garlic capital of the world. Yes, it smells like garlic and they even have garlic ice cream.

Here is a truck full of garlic!

I had never seen an olive tree until I visited Fresno. They are also get very very tall. They have silvery leaves that makes the tree look very dry. I don't know when I became fascinated with trees, but oh well I am. Okay onto the kids!

Here are a few of the pictures. They mostly speak for themselves.

Chase was pretty crazy about Grandpa from the minute he walked in the door. He held his arms up for Grandpa to pick him up. I even took a Mickey Mouse ball to him because I knew he would have forgotten us since December, but the bribe didn't work. He went straight to Grandpa and just gave me a "who is that stranger look? He is so adorable and is now twenty months old.

This is a miniature Jeremy to me.

Our little Emery never takes bad picture. She is a beauty!

Carsen is also getting so much taller and is nine years old.

Another cute one of Carsen.

This is grown up Tanner at Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey. I will journal about Monterey Bay later, but I loved this cute pic of Tanner. He is almost as tall as Grammy now. Every morning when he got up I asked him if he had grown in the night. Ha Ha. We checked every day. I'm still taller for the moment. As Andrew reminded me -- it's a low bar I have set. Not funny Andrew.

Here are the boys in the tree at the park. What a fun climbing tree. This might have been a fig tree. It had little berry looking things on it.

We had a fun scavenger hunt in the park after lunch at Sonic. The only item they couldn't find was a feather.

Emery had a birthday and is now five. She wanted a trip to Build A Bear for her birthday so off we went. She chose the pink princess bear. Boy was she excited. And yes, Grammy had just as much fun as Emery did.